The Tribune

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) chief executive has urged the Government to lead the way in making the Bahamas a regional hub for information and communications technology (ICT).

Leon Williams was one of seven speakers who addressed ICT professionals at the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner’s second annual national training symposium in Nassau.

The symposium theme, ‘The seventh Data Protection Principle: Personal Data Security offline and online’, was one of the eight data protection principals that guide the industry.

Mr. Williams spoke on whether the Bahamas has the necessary IT infrastructure to become a premier data relocation jurisdiction.

He answered “not yet”, but envisions a day when investments will be made to build the country’s ICT sector to full capacity. The BTC chief said the Bahamas must “dare to dream” to reach its full potential as an ICT and data hub in the region.

“I dreamt last night of something called digiBahamas,” said Mr Williams. “In the dream, the 21st century information age forces leaders to re-think the present model, and its ability to sustain the economy without exploiting the digital dividend in the industry of ICT.

“My vision is that the Government of the Bahamas would diversify the economy, as it did with tourism and financial services. It would implement ICT as the third economic pillar by making Bahamas the hub for regional ICT.”

Mr Williams believes the foundation for this vision already exists if resources and opportunities are used correctly.

“We must use our proximity to the US mainland to our advantage,” he urged.

“We have at our disposal the existing four fibre optic submarine cables between the Bahamas and the US: the Americas Region Caribbean Ring System (ARCOS) network connecting us to 14 Caribbean countries, and our Bahamas Domestic Submarine Network International (BDSNi) connecting 14 Bahamian Islands and Haiti.”

Mr. Williams suggested a multi-pronged approach to achive his vision.

“We should establish ourselves as an Internet Exchange Point (IXP), establish data centres and create incentives to attract manufacturers, revise our ICT regulations and laws, and capitalise on our skilled labour force.

“There is no shortage of Bahamian engineers but we must find ways to counteract brain drain and attract them to come home.”

An IXP is infrastructure where Internet Service Providers (ISPs) exchange Internet traffic between their servers.

Warning that the country may be falling behind, Mr Williams explained: “Many countries in the Caribbean have already created local IXPs; we are falling behind. The IXP, like our regulating body URCA, should be created by the providers.

“Having this structure will save money for the ISPs and the consumer, as the bandwith to send data to the US and back would no longer be required. Furthermore, it is more secure, so the data from our country stays in country. The major benefit is national security.”

Mr Williams said that in a meeting with Cable Bahamas chief executive, Anthony Butler, the previous week, there was a meeting of minds and objectives with regard to national interests. He suggested there would be more co-operation between the two companies in coming years.

“Apple, Microsoft, Google and Cisco have anywhere from $45 billion to $137 billion. If we could attract companies of this magnitude to build manufacturing hubs here, we could do away with tax structures like VAT and address the country’s debt,” Mr Williams added.

Speaking further on data security, Mr Williams reiterated the need for a sovereign, Bahamian IXP.

He said Bahamian data is currently at the mercy of foreign entities.

“Recently, we talked a lot about the NSA, the National Security Agency, but all of our data passes through Miami currently. Since 2011 there has been something called the Patriot Act, where no ICT company can have an encryption that the NSA cannot access. With a local IXP, we limit data access to Bahamian eyes,” Mr Williams added.

He also stressed personal responsibility in data security, and told users to beware overshare in the digital age, warning that data mining by international companies and governments could endanger personal information.

“Everytime you use an App to count your steps, for example, you tell Google, or whomever, where you are. You must ask: Who else are you telling by extension? We must stop putting so much blame on law enforcement, because no matter what they do, they can’t protect your data better than you,” Mr. Williams said.

He was an honoree of the Data Protection Commissioner for achieving 46 years of service in the telecommunications industry. Others honoured were Felix N. Stubbs, past president of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce; June Collie, director of the IT Department; Raymond Wells, deputy director of IT at NIB; and Detective Sargent Dale Strachan of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

CAPTION:
Mark Barrett, of the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Cyber Crimes Unit, and Sharmie Farrington-Austin, Data Protection Commissioner, present Mr Williams with his award